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Death of a Salesman

Certain private conversations in two acts and a requiem

By Arthur H. Miller

(158)

| Paperback | 9780141182742

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Book Description

Arthur Miller's 1949 Death of a Salesman has sold 11 million copies, and Willy Loman didn't make all those sales on a smile and a shoeshine. This play is the genuine article--it's got the goods on the human condition, all packed into a day in the life of one self-deluded, self-promoting, selfContinue

Arthur Miller's 1949 Death of a Salesman has sold 11 million copies, and Willy Loman didn't make all those sales on a smile and a shoeshine. This play is the genuine article--it's got the goods on the human condition, all packed into a day in the life of one self-deluded, self-promoting, self-defeating soul. It's a sturdy bridge between kitchen-sink realism and spectral abstraction, the facts of particular hard times and universal themes. As Christopher Bigsby's mildly interesting afterword in this 50th-anniversary edition points out (as does Miller in his memoir, Timebends), Willy is closely based on the playwright's sad, absurd salesman uncle, Manny. But of course Miller made Manny into Everyman, and gave him the name of the crime commissioner, Lohmann, in Fritz Lang's angst-ridden 1932 Nazi parable, The Testament of Dr. Mabuse.

The tragedy of Loman the all-American dreamer and loser works eternally, on the page as on the stage. A lot of plays made history around 1949, but none have stepped out of history into the classic canon as Salesman has. Great as it was, Tennessee Williams' work can't be revived as vividly as this play still is, all over the world. (This edition has edifying pictures of Lee J. Cobb's 1949 and Brian Dennehy's 1999 performances.) It connects Aristotle, The Great Gatsby, On the Waterfront, David Mamet, and the archetypal American movie antihero. It even transcends its author's tragic flaw of pious preachiness (which undoes his snoozy The Crucible, unfortunately his most-produced play).

No doubt you've seen Willy Loman's story at least once. It's still worth reading.--Tim Appelo, Amazon.com

9 Reviews

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  • 1 person find this helpful

    Tom Waits, "Yesterday Is Here"

    If you want money in your pocket
    And a top hat on your head
    A hot meal on your table
    And a blanket on your bed

    Well today is grey skies
    Tomorrow is tears
    You'll have to wait til yesterday is here

    Well I'm going to New York City
    And I'm leaving on a train
    And if you want to stay behind
    And wait ti ... (continue)

    If you want money in your pocket
    And a top hat on your head
    A hot meal on your table
    And a blanket on your bed

    Well today is grey skies
    Tomorrow is tears
    You'll have to wait til yesterday is here

    Well I'm going to New York City
    And I'm leaving on a train
    And if you want to stay behind
    And wait til I come back again

    Well today is grey skies
    Tomorrow is tears
    You'll have to wait til yesterday is here

    If you want to go where the rainbows end
    You'll have to say goodbye
    All our dreams come true baby up ahead
    And it's out where your memories lie

    Well the road's out before me
    And the moon is shining bright
    What I want you to remember
    As I disappear tonight

    Today is grey skies
    Tomorrow's tears
    You'll have to wait til yesterday is here
    You'll have to wait til yesterday is here

    You'll have to wait
    Til yesterday is here.

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    míol mór said on Nov 2, 2011 | 4 feedbacks

  • 1 person find this helpful

    A very interesting and thought-provoking play consisting of two acts and a requiem which is still contemporary.

    Willy, the protagonist, is the prototype of the ordinary man that we see everyday in our society, even though it has been six decades since the play was written. He was born in the U ... (continue)

    A very interesting and thought-provoking play consisting of two acts and a requiem which is still contemporary.

    Willy, the protagonist, is the prototype of the ordinary man that we see everyday in our society, even though it has been six decades since the play was written. He was born in the USA, so he was educated in a capitalist society which sees work and money as the top values to reach happiness.

    We could say that Willy is both a victim and victimizer of the American Way of life, given that he had the essence of an unassuming man but he was consumed by the common attitudes of his surroundings: envy and pride in a world of appearances, alienation and thirst of power.

    He has not fully adapted himself to the 20th century American hero, who has changed from being an intrepid explorer to a capitalist and consumer beast. He is already an old man who still lives in the roaring twenties, so he transfers his desire to achieve the American Dream to his sons and becoming the father he did not have to advise him when he was young.

    He has focused so much on paying the bills that he forgot to live, he forgot that money and gadgets do not bring happiness, they have, on the contrary, ruined his life.

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    1984 said on Oct 4, 2009 | Add your feedback

  • Considering it was written in 1948, it's quite surprising to see the very cinematographic way in which Miller merged different temporal layers, i.e. imagination and memories in the old man's slipping head while in the middle of a grim, unfolding present...

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    Marzian said on Oct 10, 2011 | Add your feedback

  • Critical introduction/comment(s):

    [This play] was written in six weeks in the spring of 1948, but it had been brewing in [the author]'s mind for ten years. Its 742 performances put it among the fifty longest recorded Broadway runs...Miller himself defined his aim in the play as being 'to set forth what happens when a man does not ha ... (continue)

    [This play] was written in six weeks in the spring of 1948, but it had been brewing in [the author]'s mind for ten years. Its 742 performances put it among the fifty longest recorded Broadway runs...Miller himself defined his aim in the play as being 'to set forth what happens when a man does not have a grip on the forces of life'.

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    Your Sources said on Mar 3, 2011 about the School & Library Binding edition | Add your feedback

  • The complex visuals make it difficult to read, especially because the stage notes are somewhat vague.

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    pktechgirl said on Oct 30, 2008 | Add your feedback

  • The classmates in my english class ruined this book for me. I probably would have liked it more if they didn't exist.

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    Bostonrox2 said on Jun 25, 2007 | Add your feedback

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